


pure-hearted devotion

by exbeekeeper



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28188888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exbeekeeper/pseuds/exbeekeeper
Summary: Yusuke and Goro fumble through their first Christmas, together.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kitagawa Yusuke
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	pure-hearted devotion

**Author's Note:**

> this fic was written for the lovely and talented [mo](https://twitter.com/momomacaroni) for the 2020 Persona Holiday Exchange! <3 hope you enjoy! title shamelessly stolen from snow halation by μ’s from love live.

Yusuke’s home late. This isn’t unusual – he gets sidetracked easily – but they have _plans_ today, plans that require a tight schedule. Goro’s a little annoyed, but in a way that he’s sure will wash away at the sight of the cold-induced flush on Yusuke’s cheeks, as it always does. 

He’s passive-aggressively making hot chocolate when he hears the banging of the door hitting the wall, Yusuke’s muttered _oof_ ringing through the halls of their apartment. He sets down the cocoa powder and power-walks out into the entryway. 

“Yusuke, I told you to call when you–”

Goro stops, baffled by the sight before him. Yusuke is there and he’s carrying a tree. Goro had expected this; he had, after all, delegated tree-choosing duties to his boyfriend after realizing how dire the consequences of accidentally choosing an aesthetically lacking tree might be. 

He had also rather expected a _Christmas_ tree. Instead, Yusuke stands in front of him with a miniature cherry-blossom tree, still in its nursery bag. Goro stares dumbly. Yusuke looks up at him and smiles wide, clearly proud of himself. 

“Goro!” Yusuke says. “I am sorry, I would have asked for your help in carrying her upstairs, but the woman at the nursery was very clear that she should be brought inside as quickly as possible.” 

“You… got a cherry tree.” 

Yusuke looks, if possible, even more pleased with himself. “I did! It was very difficult to find, but in the end I managed to hunt down a very kind older woman with a greenhouse who was willing to sell me this yearling.” He looks fondly at the cherry tree. “She’s lovely, isn’t she?”

Goro presses his palms to his temples. “Yusuke. Please tell me you’re fucking with me.” Yusuke deflates a little. It makes something tug in Goro’s chest, but this situation is so fucking ridiculous that he thinks he’s allowed this. 

“I… Have I done something wrong? I am sorry, Goro, I am not…” he looks away, sets the cherry tree down beside him so he can wrap his arms around himself. “I’ve never done this before.” 

Well, shit. He’d… known, to an extent, that Yusuke wasn’t used to celebrations. Earlier that year they’d had his first-ever birthday party and he’d been so overwhelmed he cried. Goro makes a frustrated noise. “No, you’re fine, Yusuke. I just – was surprised. Typically a Christmas tree is a pine tree.” 

Yusuke looks down at his cherry tree. It’s about the height of his waist, delicate but bare branches stretching out like hands. It’s honestly a little ugly like this, without flowers or leaves to disguise its red-brown skeleton, but if Yusuke thinks it’s beautiful there must be something Goro isn’t seeing. 

(Goro feels that way a lot, with Yusuke. He feels it every time Yusuke looks at him like he’s something precious.) 

“Oh,” Yusuke says, sounding disappointed. “I can–” 

Goro moves quickly to Yusuke’s side, taking the tree from him and making a show of inspecting it. “Well,” he says, looking up at Yusuke, “I suppose you and I have never been typical, hm? So it’s fine. Let’s set it up.”

That pleased little smile slowly stretches back across Yusuke’s face, filling Goro’s chest with warmth. Together they bring the tree to the stand Goro had set up earlier and affix it so it stands on its own. It’s clumsy, since the stand was built for the thick trunk of a pine tree and not the softness of the nursery bag, but it helps that the tree isn’t particularly tall. 

Goro drags the tupperware of decorations – cobbled together from the other Phantom Thieves’ generosity and some odds and ends he and Yusuke had bought. Yusuke’s positioning the tree, so Goro lets him work, busies himself unwrapping the lights. When Yusuke appears satisfied, Goro offers him the spool and lets him drape it precisely over the tree’s bare branches. 

Decorating with Yusuke is … interesting. Yusuke gives a lot of precise directions which Goro inevitably fails to follow perfectly to his standards, and Yusuke ends up redoing it anyway. After a certain point Goro retreats to the kitchen for both their sakes, warming the forgotten cocoa back up and pouring it into mugs. 

Yusuke’s placing the star on the topmost branch when Goro returns with the cocoa. He turns and smiles at Goro, takes one of the mugs from his hands. Together they maneuver themselves onto the couch, the blanket Ryuji had knit for them the previous year spread over their laps, Yusuke leaning gently against Goro’s shoulder. 

It’s quiet, for a moment. Then: “I… am sorry for the tree mix-up,” Yusuke says.

Goro snorts. “It’s alright. I would have been more specific if it were important to me. I shouldn’t have assumed the finer points of a Christmas tree would be knowledge you’d have picked up.” 

Yusuke nods, fidgeting. After another tense moment he murmurs, “Would you be willing to critique my work?” 

“Your… the tree?” Goro blinks, surprised. “Of course. Give me a moment to take it in properly.” 

Goro looks at the tree. It’s sparse due to the season, and as Goro said it’s a little ugly at first glance. But Yusuke had seen the beauty it held, and had so carefully coaxed it out. He’d flat-out refused any ornaments he deemed tacky, despite them being gifts, and Futaba had teased him for his rudeness. 

The display is… lovely, in a word. He’s covered the stand with a white-and-gold tree skirt, the branches weighed slightly down by the white-yellow string lights. Small, slightly mismatched red baubles hang from the ends of the branches, and tinsel glitters charmingly without being overbearing. The star at the top is delicate and gold – Yusuke had made it himself, deftly bending the wires into spirals until they matched his vision.

It’s beautiful. Yusuke has taken something strange and made it lovely in his hands, as he always seems to. He saw what this strange, ugly tree might be and took the care to make it so.

Goro tells him all this. Yusuke looks quietly pleased, even as Goro tells him the palette’s cliche, just to save face after all that sappiness, all that uncharacteristic warmth that Yusuke so easily makes characteristic. 

Yusuke falls asleep leaning against him, that night. Goro watches the lights on their tiny, mismatched tree until he, too, drifts off. 

**Author's Note:**

> as always, i'm on [twitter](https://twitter.com/exbeekeeper), and i eat comments for power!


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